Darius is a horizontal shoot 'em up (Shmup) you may have seen during the 90s, whether at the arcade or on the SNES or Megadrive. I had a pretty limited exposure to the series, I just remember single panel screenshots of a spaceship facing down a large aquatic-based robot. Now Taito has brought out two cozmic collections, one covering the arcade Darius games, the other being the console versions. Fortunately I get the chance to check out both of them. It's time to take a dive into the Darius Collections.

One of the defining parts of Darius is the enemies are robotic aquatic marine life (with some exceptions), so expect to see a lot of killer robot fish. I can’t really say much for the actual plot of Darius. Sometimes there’s an intro cutscene or some dialogue at the beginning, but none of it is ever reflected in the actual game besides the endings you can get. You pilot the Silver Hawk, navigating and shooting your way through an assortment of levels. Once you complete a level, you get to choose from several levels to progress to next. You always start with the same first level, and then from there it splinters off. Depending on the paths you pick, you can wind up with more difficult enemies if you really want to put your skills to the test. There is always a big boss to defeat before you get to move on, in Darius 2 onwards there are also mid level bosses to bring your horizontal shooting days to an end. 

When you defeat certain enemies they drop powerups, either guns, bombs or shield. While I did enjoy building up my ship into a harbinger of death and annihilation to all robots, the shield is the most useful to keep building up. Instead of being destroyed by one stray shot, you can take a few hits when the screen fills up with enemies and bullets. I wish I could say that I was good enough to be taking a fully powered up ship through the whole game, but I’m just not that good. One of the variations between versions of the different games (or even just different versions of the same game) is whether you get to hold onto your upgraded weapons upon death or if you have to start from scratch. The game difficulty has been designed to accommodate this as well, although I’m no Darius expert to know all of the changes different between each version.

The Arcade versions of Darius originally were displayed on a three monitor setup. It gives you a lot of space to fill with aerial battles, but makes it harder to capture on a TV or Switch screen. By the time it got to Darius 2 it was more often a two screen setup. Once again it is a neat feature, at least it is clearer to see than the first game.

Being arcade games means you need credits to keep going past a continue screen. Luckily there is a button to add credits whenever you need them. If you want you can limit how many credits you have to give yourself a challenge, or you can just enjoy seeing the game through to the end. With many multiple paths in every game there is a lot of replay value.

Console 

The console versions are all noticeably reduced versions of the arcade games. Starting with the arcade collection first, it felt like an immediate downgrade. If you’re interested in this collection you likely know what you’re getting into, also the arcade collection exists alongside it. On its own, the games still hold up well enough. Despite not being as good as their arcade brethren, they are very playable. Not all of the games are ports of the arcade games either, 

The Console Collection has slightly more games bundled in, three of these titles being Darius II/Sagaia. Most of the games in this collection have both the Japanese and the US versions on the same platform, in the case of Sagaia there is also a Master System version. It’s an interesting addition amongst mostly Megadrive/Genesis and SNES games, given how limited it is compared to its more advanced counterparts it’s more of a novelty or curiosity for the Darius fans than a full game addition. While the amount of games seems decent at a glance, like the arcade collection, there’s really only half that amount when you exclude regional versions or slight differences. 

Without credits (not being the arcade versions and all) you have only until game over, if you’re lucky to have continues left. Save states are useful here, and you can also increase the amount of lives you get depending on the game. With a fast paced shoot em up like this, the collection would’ve really benefited from having buttons dedicated to the quick save and load functions. While you can’t do that, you can at least perform a quick save or load from the menu. Personally I found they’re inconvenient to use on and off in difficult spots, you don’t know when you’re going to need to save until it’s too late. They feel best suited for saving the game between levels when you don’t have enough time for a full playthrough. On the arcade version it is easy to keep adding credits so you can get through to the end within an hour easily. The console versions don’t have unlimited continues so the challenge is definitely higher in the Console Collection.

There is information on each version across both collections, although it’s not exactly clear as to what exactly all the differences are between the many renamed and slightly tweaked titles. It feels like a missed opportunity for there to be a museum feature, to delve into Darius history and get a better idea of each title. Even just some photos and footage of the arcade machines in action would’ve been great. Unfortunately, outside of the games themselves there are slim pickings for extra content. You can play another mode on the arcade versions, but they are more for letting you muck around with the powerups in ways you can’t when playing normally.

The unavoidable issue that makes these collections a harder sell is not only that there are two collections, the asking price for them firmly puts these games as a niche buy, Value is always a difficult area, it’s subjective and people should be paid for their work. Dividing these sets and charging over $100 AUD if you want both feels like it goes too far. Especially when both sets are filled out with multiple versions of the same games, you’d have to be a hardcore Darius fan to overlook this. It’s a big shame, with only knowing of Darius through gaming magazines growing up it has been so enjoyable to get to play this retro series. While I got to check out both versions for the review, allowing me to be able to see how they play differently, it would be a much harder decision to make if I had to choose.

The Darius Cozmic Collections are a good way to re-live or discover some classic Shmups. Both the Arcade and Console versions cover a lot of the earlier Darius titles, but in the Console collections case it has a few too many very similar titles. The biggest shame is that these collections are seperate purchases at a price that makes getting both collections a costly proposition. If you want the nicest looking and better running versions of the games, then the Arcade collection is the way to go. If you want more variations on those arcade titles then the Console collection has it in spades.